The role of mother tongue in english language teaching

competence, and strategic competence. Together these four components suggest a 
model of communicative competence as a basis for curriculum design and classroom 
practice (Savignon, 1983:35).
Grammatical competence, according to Richards and Rodgers, “refers to what 
Chomsky calls linguistic competence 
[
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. It is domain of grammatical and lexical 
capacity.” (2005:160). Sociolinguistic competence “refers to an understanding of the 
social context in which communication takes place.” (Richards and Rodgers, 2005:160), 
Discourse competence “is concerned with the connection of utterances to form a 
meaningful whole.” (Savignon, 1983:38) and finally Strategic competence “refers to the 
coping strategies that communicators employ to initiate, terminate, maintain, repair, and 
redirect communication.” (Richards and Rodgers, 2005:160).
Canale and Swain´s extension of the Hymesian model of communicative 
competence 
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was in turn elaborated in some complexity by Bachman (1991). 
The Bachman model has been, in turn, extended by Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, and 
Thurrell (1997) (Richards and Rodgers, 2005:160). 
There is also another distinction of communicative language components, which 
is provided by Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. It suggests 
a comprising of linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence (2004:13). 
According to this framework, linguistic competences are concerned with the lexical, 
phonological, syntactical knowledge and skills and other dimensions of language as a 
system. It relates not only to a quality of knowledge but also to cognitive organization, 
to the way how the knowledge is stored and to its accessibility. Sociolinguistic 
competences refer to the sociocultural conditions of language use, which are for 
example the rules of politeness, norms between sexes and classes, linguistic 
codification. Pragmatic components are related to the functional use of production of 
language functions and speech acts, discourse, cohesion and coherence, the 
identification of text types and forms and the impact of interaction (2004:13). 

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26 
3.2. Teaching for communicative competence 
The atmosphere is alive with sounds and laughter. The buzz of conversation fills 
the air. Voices are raised to be a part of the action. Communication is taking 
place. This is a gathering of conversation partners--English language learners 
practicing their English 
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. (Olson, 2007).
Over the years, views how best to teach English shifted from grammar 
translation, memorizing and drills to using language in real-life context. Nowadays, 
probably the most accepted way is communicative language teaching with a goal of 
increasing communicative competence, which means the ability “to understand and 
interpret messages, understand the social contexts 
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, apply the rules of grammar, and 
employ strategies to keep communication from breaking down (Savignon cited in 
Donna Moss, 2005:3). According to Moss, “The primary principle underlying CLT is 
that language learners need opportunities to use the language in authentic 
conversations.” (2005:3). In other words, in developing communicative competence 
being understood is more important than using correct vocabulary or grammar. Also the 
interaction in target language plays a crucial role in second language teaching and 
learning. “Understanding the concept of interlanguage, which is language spoken by 
nonnative speakers is key to understanding 
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interaction.” (2005:5) Moss further 
specifyes that although the communication during the interaction may collapse, the 
listener can ask for clarification or confirmation (2005:5). In the process of language 
teaching, interactive language involves both the teacher and learner in situations leading 
to language development and therefore to development of communicative competence. 
“The teacher is responsible for providing opportunities for interaction in which learners 
control the topics and discourse.” (Brown and Ellis cited in Moss, 2005:5). Therefore 
Moss suggests eight strategies for effective interaction: 
1.
Logically sequenced lesson plan. 
2.
Releasing control over learners. 
3.
Facilitating learner-to-learner interactions by monitoring. 
4.
Initiating interaction by using a variety of questions. 
5.
Understanding that interaction does not necessarily mean only verbal